


landlocked

by queenchingshih



Series: e r r o r_f i l e_c o r r u p t e d [1]
Category: Borderlands, Tales from the Borderlands - Fandom
Genre: Established Relationship, Gen, M/M, Muteness, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Sign Language, Siren!Rhys, Trans Male Character, mermaid au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-25
Updated: 2015-08-25
Packaged: 2018-04-17 05:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4653717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenchingshih/pseuds/queenchingshih
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His music always fell upon silence but today, in a pause of breath, he hears an answering call. He scrambles to his feet staring intently onto the horizon for a flash of tail amongst the waves but the song is not coming from the ocean, it's coming from the land.</p>
            </blockquote>





	landlocked

**Author's Note:**

> For this AU I've combined Irish folklore concerning Mermaids, or Merrow as they're called and the Greek mythology of the Siren. Note that all information on the merrow and sirens comes from online sources and I do not in any way claim to be an expert on the folk lore or the mythology.

 

 

Rhys sits on a large rock on the beach, staring out to sea and pretends he still has his tail. He sings quietly to himself, songs longing for the sea drifting over the shore breeze. It's a depressing, mournful melody, too raw to be beautiful but it reflects who he's become and Rhys takes some small comfort in that. He may never be able to return to the ocean but he'll always have the music inside. His music always fell upon silence but today, in a pause of breath, he hears an answering call. He scrambles to his feet staring intently onto the horizon for a flash of tail amongst the waves but the song is not coming from the ocean, it's coming from the land.

Rhys follows it, growing more concerned and curious as the song leads him across the beach and down the stone path leading... well, not home. It will never be home but it's, his, in a sense. His and Jack's. And there's someone like him there.  When he reaches the cottage there's a girl out in the garden singing as she waters the plants. She's wearing a sun hat with a wide brim and a dress with sunflowers printed over the white fabric, her feet are bare and pressed into the soft earth. She looks happy but the song she sings is filled with melancholy. She smiles when she sees him standing there, her song trailing off softly.

'Hello.' She says and Rhys gapes at her. 'You must be Rhys.' She adds, setting the watering can down and coming forward, hand outstretched.  He takes her hand, notes the unmistake able  swirling blue markings  mapping up her left arm, up over her bare shoulder. Just like the ones he has. There's no doubt in his mind now that she's a merrow. A merrow with a human voice. 

Rhys shakes her hand, an odd human custom that he had only ever witnessed and never partook in. When he releases her hand he signs  _Hello _ and her eyes widen. 'Oh of course, how could I forget!' She exclaims, hand flying to her mouth before she starts to sign,  _I'm sorry._ _It has been a long time since I have needed to sign._ Some of the meaning gets jumbled along the way and Rhys has to concentrate for a second to decipher what it is she's saying, but he gets it in the end.

_It's okay._   Rhys assures her.  _Who are you? _

_ I am Angel. _  He understands that easy enough but can see the gears turning in her brain trying to remember what sign language she knows, getting more anxious by the second. Rhys touches her arm lightly and signs,    


_ You can speak if it is easier?  _ Angel gives him a sort of guilty nod and Rhys shakes his head. He gestures for them to sit in the grass with the wooden arm Jack had crafted for him and Angel nods again, less guilty this time. They sit together, the grass beneath them warm and dry. 

'Thank you. I am woefully out of practise.' Angel admits. Rhys cannot get over her voice, how natural it sounds, how easily she uses it. Is it something he can learn after all? To speak the human tongue, he didn't think it possible. 

_ How do you do that? _

'Speak?' She asks and when Rhys nods she sighs and looks away, over to the cottage.    


'I'm half human.' She tells him and it all clicks into place. She can speak because she has human blood, of course she does. It makes sense. Rhys tries not to feel too disheartened at that. It's stupid, he didn't really want to be able to speak. He had sign and he had his songs. 'My mother was sea born, like you. Like us .'  Angel tells him and it suddenly catches up to Rhys that this girl is not just a landlocked merrow passing by. She knows him, the kitchen door is ajar and she's watering Jack's plants. 

_ Is Jack your father? _ But he already knows the answer. It's the only explanation that makes sense. 

'Yes.' Angel answers short, her eyes sad as her body tenses. Rhys can understand that, the confusing mix of resentment and love. 

_ I didn't know he had a daughter. _ But at the same time he's not surprised at all. Jack is shrouded in mystery, so many secrets that Rhys could not even begin to unravel. The question was, why had he chosen to reveal this one to Rhys?

'And I didn't know he had a lover.' Angel counters, peering at Rhys curiously. She opens her mouth again to speak and somehow Rhys knows what she's going to say, knows it's going to be too much so he cuts her off.   


_ Where is Jack? _ He asks, looking around them in case the man popped out of the bushes or something equally absurd. 

'He went into town to pick me up a few things. You know, tooth paste, that kind of thing.' Angel answered.

_ You are staying with us? _  Rhys asks pleasantly surprised at the thought of having someone else around the house. Angel attempts a smile but it comes across as more of a grimace. 

'I don't have a choice.' That does something to Rhys' heart, pulls at its strings as the humans would say.

_ Yeah, me neither. _ The moment Rhys lost his cohuleen druith home had called to him, begging him to return and Rhys often hopes it understands, hopes his kin understands that if he could, he would return in a heartbeat. But without the cap he has no hope of growing his tail and if anything has been made secret by Jack, it's the location of Rhys' power.

He and Angel talk for hours out in the grass, about the sea about the land and each other. They don't sing though Rhys knows they both yearn to, despite all their songs being sad ones. Rhys thinks they should wait for something happier to bubble up inside of them, he hasn't sang anything with joy in a long time. As they converse Rhys finds himself liking Angel more by the second, she's witty and very wise for her age, unwaveringly compassionate and  as Rhys hears Jack's truck rumble closer, returning from town at last, he looks at Angel and thinks that  perhaps with another of his kind around the call of the sea would be far easier to bear. 

**Author's Note:**

> merrow = mermaid  
> cohuleen druith = a cap that a merrow wears. human spouses of the merrow hide the cap to prevent the merrow returning to the sea  
> 


End file.
